Crystal White
by Poke-lover
Summary: Crystal White was a filly who had the disadvantage of being born with no eye sight. After Celestia's rule splits the country into a civil war between those still loyal to the crown and those who wish for change, Crystal must speak out against the violence to restore what was.
1. Prologue

_Edited by BlackRoseRaven_

"How does the sun feel, little Crystal?" Princess Celestia asked the little unicorn filly who was standing next to her at the top of the Canterlot Castle tower, looking out at the view that Celestia knew she couldn't see.

The unicorn, Crystal, lifted her milky white eyes up to the sky, but only saw a void of nothing. But she felt the heat of the sun tingle against her cheeks, while the soft breezes flowing through her short mane felt like water. The feelings were something that she didn't want to end, she felt complete, without a care. "It feels warm, Princess. That is the sun, right?" The little voice replied.

Celestia smiled and looked out to where the trees were beginning to lose their colorful leaves to the hold of winter. "Yes, it is the sun."

"Princess?" The filly asked, turning her head to where she knew the princess was standing from the direction of her voice.

"Please, call me Tia, Crystal. I only used my title for royal duties: you are a friend."

Crystal blushed and looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry...Tia."

"What is there to be sorry about?"

Crystal frowned. "I-It's just..." She stopped herself from talking. She wanted to ask a question that she had asked many times before about her eyes and her sight. She felt a wing caress her in a compassionate manner.

"Crystal, I'm not mad." Tia's voice was soothing, and Crystal knew she could trust that voice. She nuzzled against the princess' side with loving affection. "I just wanted to share with you something that very few ponies get to know about me. You are the only true friend I have alive." The princess' voice suddenly got quieter and more sad. "Not even Twilight Sparkle treats me like an equal, as you do." Crystal felt something lean against the top of her head, and she heard the princess' voice vibrate as she spoke with a somber tone. Suddenly, she felt something wet up there...was the princess crying? "E-Ever since I had to b-banish my sister, I-I've been so lonely." But hope filled the next sentence. "Then, you came along and I wasn't lonely anymore...you raised the sun in my life. Thank you."

Crystal continued to feel the tears fall and she snuggled up to the princess. She raised she front hooves and embraced the princess' neck in a deep, emotional hug. "I won't leave you Princess...I mean- Tia." Neither wanted to break the moment, and neither did until a guard came up from behind them.

"Princess, the filly's family is here to pick her up." He took no notice to the moment that the pair was in and stood there, waiting to escort Crystal to her parents.

Celestia saw that the guard wasn't going to leave and spoke to him kindly, using a more confident voice. "Can you give us a moment?"

"Yes, your highness." The guard bowed, then closed the door behind him on his way inside.

When the doors closed, Tia turned back to the still-embraced filly and smiled. Lifting her head, the filly flew onto her back with a giggle. Tia laughed with her. "Come on, we need to get you to your parents. You have school tomorrow and I don't want you to get behind on your sleep." She headed indoors to see the guard was standing at attention near the hallway that led downstairs. "I'll take her to her parents personally, you look like you could use some rest."

"Thank you, your highness."

Celestia frowned a bit to the guard's broken record reply. That was all she ever heard as an answer to anything that she said or suggested. Always the same reply. But Crystal was so so different: it was only because of her shyness that she agreed, not because she thought she had to. Celestia felt that Crystal treated her like a best friend, somepony who was just like everyone else.

The filly on her back had fallen asleep on the walk down and was curled up into a small ball, and silently snored and dreamed whatever that filly could think up. Her parents were waiting in the castle foyer when Celestia got there. They exchanged quiet words to not wake the cute, slumbering teddy bear of a filly. Joice carried Crystal on her back out towards home as Bert stayed behind to talk to the princess.

"I hope she wasn't too much trouble, your highness." Bert said being so overly polite that Celestia had to hold a small chuckle in her throat.

"She was no trouble. A little angel, she was." It was the truth.

"I really appreciate all that you have done for us...and Crystal." He bowed. Celestia could tell Bert was nervous talking to her

"It is an honor to help such a kind-hearted filly. That sweetheart believes there is no evil in the world."

"You know what they say, see no evil, hear no evil."

"I wouldn't use that phrase around her. She could take that the wrong way. She's innocent enough."

"I won't, your highness...well, goodnight."

Celestia looked out the window as Bert caught up with Joice and watched them head home with the little filly that had captured her heart. As soon as they were out of sight, she headed back up to the top of the tower to lower the sun and to raise the moon...a job that had once belonged to her sister. Celestia looked out to the rising white orb that had the mare-in-the-moon looking out over the whole of Equestria and sighed. How she missed her sister so much! The loneliness was long and hard to overcome, and she knew that Crystal could only do so much to heal that loneliness. But if Tia kept up with her dates, that loneliness for her sister was about to end, and she had to get ready for it.


	2. Five Years Earlier

Crystal White's dreams were just as dark as her days, but the air was full of sounds and sensations that told Crystal a story. Born a hundred percent blind, while her clear irises gave her a name, she never got to experience the worldly unappreciated magic of colors. When her large eyes finally close for the night, she gets to see everything the she missed in the real world, to live life as if she was a normal pony, but she had to wake up sometime.

"Crystal, time to get up."

Noooooo, she was having such a nice dream of adventure with her favorite book character, Daring Doo. Having to get somepony to read for her was like listening to a movie play, but this time, she could understand what was going on. She swung from from rope vines, fought tyrannical zebras (or what she thought zebras looked like), and discovered long lost...

"Crystal!" Her mother's voice was stern this time. "Get up now, or do you want to have me feed your breakfast to the pigs?"

Blinking her eyes to get the drowsiness out with little difference to her view, she gave a small yawn, stretched some tight muscles loose, and hopped out of the warmth and comfort of her bed. This was the problem with going to school after the weekend, your body was still used to waking up at a later time and it was adamant on staying asleep a little while longer. Feeling against the walls, and by memory, she sluggishly made her way to the kitchen without assistance from her mother, who she was sure was watching her.

"Mom, please don't throw my breakfast out to the pigs. In fact, when did we get pigs? I didn't know we had any." She was too sleepy to realize that it was a joke and a way to get her out of bed.

Her mother giggled, "Well, you're just in time."

Crystal heard a chair screech on the floor, the hoofsteps clopping over to her, and felt a hoof on her back. She had felt that tiny pressure on her back so many times that it barely registered in her mind anymore, because it was how ponies directed her to where she needed to go or to where the owner of the hoof wanted her to be. Her father must've come over to bring her to the table.

All she ever heard from ponies was how much she needed help moving around without bumping into other ponies, and how often she couldn't do things on her own without supervision. At such a young age, with all the 'help' she got from ponies, Crystal desired to be left to her own devices and to be treated like she could think for herself and be more of an adult. The mature feelings she felt flowed through her like the currents of a river rushing and roaring over the edge of a waterfall, uncontainable.

She shooed his guidance away like a bothersome fly. "I want to do it myself..." Hearing those words come out of her mouth in such a rude manner towards her father's help scared the unicorn filly a bit and she collected the right words to say to fix it. "Um...I mean, can I try it by myself... I wanna see if I could do it." She heard his hoofsteps moving back, likely to give her some room.

Slowly, but bravely, she let go of the wall. Stumbling a bit with her first couple of steps, she corrected herself quickly. Keeping her concentration on her goal, she walked in the direction opposite of the wall, feeling out with a hoof every couple of paced steps as she managed to keep herself steady and in as straight a line as she thought she was going. Suddenly, she felt something made of wood and cried out with excitement and hope: "Mom! Dad! Did I do it, is this the table!?"

Once again, she felt the hoof on her back which brought her away from whatever she was touching, but she was sure it had to have been a table leg, though it did seem rather large to be one. "I'm sorry, sweetheart," Her father's voice sadly replied. "That was the counter you walked to, not the table. You walked right passed it."

Crystal's joy was thrown away instant, her ears lowering in sadness. A feeling of failure pressed deep inside her, and she wanted to cry out at the unforgiving world, but held those tears inside. She wasn't a little filly like everypony thought and expected her to be, she had to prove to everypony that she was ready to be equal. She couldn't cry. All she replied with was "Oh..."

"Do you wanna try again, sweetheart?" That nickname was beginning to get old fast.

Crystal shook her head and sighed outwardly, "No, but-um... dad...could you please stop calling me 'sweetheart'? Just call me Crystal White...please."

She couldn't see, but both parents exchanged worried glances with one another. "Okay, if that's how you want it, Crystal."

Her father led her over to her chair and helped her get into it, and scooted the chair in closer to the table before silently taking his own seat. She heard her mother setting a plate down beside her and she felt the vibrations of ceramic on wood. Once her mother was finished sitting down, she began a prayer to which Crystal brought her hooves together and silently followed along:  
[center]"Oh Faust...we thank you for bringing us together at the table for a wonderful breakfast that you have graciously provided for us, and the day that you created for the Princess to give..." In her mother's pause, Crystal felt eyes on her, which made her feel like curling into a ball to escape, but she ignored it for her mother's sake. "...and i ask that my great and treasured blessing, Crystal, will have a good day at school today."[/center]  
The end of the blessings gave way to the beginnings of a great breakfast meal, with Crystal feeling around the table for utensils with her magic.

Once finished she and her mother walked out of the house to head to the school that was only a few blocks away. Crystal usually insisted going by herself and that nothing would happen to her and that she knew the way and that she had all her stuff and that she really wanted to go by herself...

But her mom was always worried that she would stumble into the street and get hit by a passing carriage or get foalnapped. This time, she was silent the entire way there. She could feel the magic that her mother used to guide her on her back like a leash for a pet, and this embarrassed her to no end. Could she do anything about it...? No.

Quickly, the pair reached the front of the school, which Crystal didn't even know the name of. She felt her mother's hoof on her back, and pressure that came with it, that was supposed to be gentle and supportive, but was actually keeping her down. The magical leash vanished.

"Are you sure you won't get into any trouble?" Crystal sighed inwardly to not insult her mother, but she worried about her daughter far too much for her liking, so much in fact that Crystal would do almost anything just to have a couple of minutes away from the babying and the overly protective hooves that now held her. What a horrible thought to even think, but it was how she felt.

She smiled reassuringly, "Of course, Mom."

"And you are going to stay away from those bullies, right?" Her mother pressed the answer from Crystal.

"Yes, [i]Mother[/i]." Openly showing a bit of her annoyance.

Obviously, the hint sailed over her mother's head , a lot like everything that she did. As an inside joke to herself, Crystal would wonder if her mother was the blind one in the family.

"Are you sure? Do you know where to go if you get into trouble?"

"Yes, yes Mom! You tell me this every day. I just need to go to a supa-supa...whatever that big word is."

"Supervisor." Her mom corrected.

"Yes, so can I go now?" She really wanted to really get away.

"Okay, hunny." Her mother pulled her into a tight hug. "I'll see you after school."

Crystal heard her mother walk away finally and her faked smile fell into a frown. "But I won't," she said to herself with sadness and pity before turning to where the sounds of masses of foals came from, and she stumbled a bit to get inside the classroom before the bell could ring. She liked to be early in case she ever got lost somehow, even though Ms. Wheatmire excused her tardies every time.

[center]%%%[/center]

"...because Princess Celestia has to raise and lower the sun and the moon every day and night, this is proof enough to many ponies that the world that we live on is indeed flat." The teacher, Ms. Wheatmire, concluded her day's lecture to the class.

Crystal sat at her desk, listening intently to everything that was being told to her. The students were supposed to take to be taking notes, yet she got to sit and just listen, while a recorder that sat at the top end of her desk did all the hard work.

"Now class, I want you all to get out all of last week's notes and study them for the test that you will be having later today while I help Crystal study. You don't have to take this opportunity to study, but I don't want any side conversations."

Crystal heard that beautifully ugly word 'help' again. She felt her ears lower once again in embarrassment at the special treatment that she got from the teacher. Turning off her recorder, she was led to the back of the room where she was seated in a chair while Ms. Wheatmire sat across from her.

"Ms. Wheatmire?" Crystal wanted to get her teacher to understand the embarrassment that she was forced to endure.

"Yes?"

Crystal pressed her issue with as much confidence as she could muster internally. She had to get somepony to understand. "Is...Is it possible for me to study on my own?" There...she said it. Now she waited with mixed feelings of worry and her overly used emotion of hope. Was it wrong to have hope for everything in life?

She heard a sigh, which dashed those hopes away with a single push of breath. Could she ever not have the weight on her back from some hoof that she knew was trying to give her that hard to pronounce and harder-still to get 're-ashur-ence', but only succeeded in making her more upset with the weight of pity. "I'm sorry Crystal that I don't have the materials or bits to pay for a better educational experience. I'm using these bigger words with you because I know you are a very intelligent filly. But I know how you must feel, you are a mare in a filly's body. You want to have your independence, don't you?"

A candle flame flickered into a torch light of intensity and happiness when she knew that somepony understood how she felt. She had been screaming it out, but she thought that no one heard it or listened, or cared. Frantically, nodding her head in excitement, she made her wants known. But a bucket of water poured out over the fire with the fact that her ind-epend-ence would not be hers.

"W-Would I ever get my ind-e-pen-dence?" She asked, trying to relight the candle. She just felt this word was the best word to describe what she wanted, even if she didn't know what it meant.

"Come on," Ms. Wheatmire chuckled warmly. "Let's get some studying done before it's time for recess."


	3. Broken Stairs

Princess Celestia always paced back and forth excessively when she was nervous or scared, and she was both right now. She felt the fear creep around inside her like spiders in a network of webs, and it made her nauseous. Celestia's body shook, as if the inappropriate touch of a chill rose and fell along the slight curvature of her spine. She felt her heartbeat throb in her chest to an increased tempo; she could hear it thundering in her ears. A slight sweat had accumulated along her brow as her brain churned thoughts out like a jet of water.

The reason for Celestia's fear was that she had to deny a proposal from the Ponyment to raise the minimum wage from eight bits to ten, to help the apparently struggling middle class with paying the extra bills on time and save a few bits off to the side for recreational use. Celestia knew that this act sounded great on paper and like a sure way to help any who need a little help, a new tax would have to come out of this if she passed it. She knew that the Equestria treasury was limited and that there was a reason why her parents had set the minimum wage to where it was: if too much was given out while too little is coming in, there wouldn't be enough to give out after a while.

Celestia sighed with her thoughts and murmured: "This won't end well." She knew she was just telling herself the truth and hiding nothing, like she did with everypony else in her life. She felt her stomach twist and buckle with worry that any day now, a mob of angry ponies would storm the gates and demand new leadership, because of whatever she had done wrong with so many things; the largest being the agricultural policies she had made and were outdated by a few centuries, causing an unmistakable drop in food production from farms. Instead of fixing these policies, she increased the quota required from the farmers.

She knew she was a kind ruler, but she was an incompetent one at best who constantly needed help or advice, even if this advice and help was just as incompetent as she was. As somepony who was afraid to make any new decisions least she offend or upset somepony, which was why she created the Ponyment, so they would create the laws and all she had to do was accept of deny them, but almost anything that has been made under her rule lately has not worked, and because she is the ruler, she was the one blamed for everything.

Realizing what she was doing and where she was going with her woe-is-me thoughts, she pulled herself out of the hole that she was digging herself into and relaxed. Reading the proposal one last time, finding a problem with her grammar, she used her magic to pick up a quill on the desk beside her and scratched out the offending word. She finished by rolling up the parchment into a scroll and tying it off with a red ribbon adorned with the royal seal before setting it, along with others, in a box to be sent back to the Ponyment.

A knock sounded at the door. It was hasty and loud so it had to have been important or the knocker was in a hurry. Over the thousands of years, if there was one thing that Celestia has learned from politics, it was body language and other subtle things that ponies do and their reasons for doing it, and the ways she could use this to her advantage.

"Enter." She called out with authority.

A servant-butler came running into the room with his eyes wide with fear, even while still managing to look presentable in the suit he wore.

"My princess!" He breathed heavily as he spoke in broken strands of phrases. "A...mob...has...been collecting...at the gates!"

Wow...she hadn't even sent out the vetoes and the ponies were already rioting, her own inner humor tried to make light of the situation that everyone was in. She felt the tension in the room get strained like rubber being stretched to its limits. The joking aside, she needed to see the numbers of ponies that had managed to get her attention. She rushed out onto her balcony while the out-of-shape butler clutched at his side and leaned against a vanity to support himself.

Looking out, Celestia saw the mob was over a couple hundred leeches latching at the steel gates surrounding the castle. The _ponies_ yelled obscenities at her when they saw her come out of her room. Sighing sadly, she shook her head, wondering what she had done wrong this time?

The butler hobbled to her side. "They all said that they were tired of being hungry."

Tired of being hungry? Sure the policies of agriculture were a little outdated, but not so much that ponies would be starving like this. It upset Celestia that her ponies would do such a thing for something that they could do so easily...such laziness."Then maybe they should go out and do some honest work for food, instead of standing around there going hungry."

She turned toward her companion to see a growing dark spot from his suit on his stomach. The mob hadn't sent a messenger. They sent a message.

"They hurt you." She stated to him with rare anger in her voice.

"It's nothing but a scratch, Princess." He insisted. "One of the ponies down there had a knife. I don't know which one, there were just too many of them."

"RAIN!" Shouted the princess, and a guard rushed through the half open door.

"Yes?" He asked.

"TAKE EMIL QUICKLY TO THE INFIRMARY, THEN I WANT YOU TO HEAD TO SHINING ARMOR'S BARRACKS AND INFORM HIM OF MY ORDER FOR HIM TO GET THE GUARDS DOWN THERE...I WANT UNICORNS TO ERECT BARRIERS AROUND THAT MOB, I WANT THOSE _PONIES_ TO STAND FOR TAKING THE FREEDOMS THAT I GIVE THEM AND GOING TOO FAR AND HURTING ANOTHER!"

Shining Armor looked irritable pale in the mirror as he dressed himself from the pjs he wore to his officer's uniform. He had been woken up and ordered to start a strange job: arrest the citizens that he he was supposed to protect. To justify these strange orders in his mind, to make him feel better about doing them, he cleared away these thoughts and only thought about how this mob might hurt another pony. With his training in the royal guard, he had enough practice to do this; to focus on nothing else but the job at hoof, and forget everything else until later. He sighed: this was going to be an interesting day.

Unknown to Shining at first, the door to his barracks room quietly opened and his little sister, Twilight Sparkle, personal student and protege to Princess Celestia, poked her head into the room. She saw his quick movements of anger, how he grabbed and pulled objects instead of picking them up, how he threw whatever he held down when he was done using it, how the collapsed face reflecting in the mirror was void of the kindness she was used to seeing from her brother. Twilight was shocked and frightened at how a pony could change so quickly and in so little time to make the change.

The reflection of his sister in the mirror brought his attention onto her. He didn't turn but he did make eye contact with her, and the gaze was commanding but with his love for her still showing through the annoyance. "Don't say anything, Twilight Sparkle. I'm not in the mood to talk right now. Get up to where the princess is, wherever she is, and stay out of the way."

Twilight did stay silent but her mind refused to stay quiet. How could her loving brother say such a thing, especially to his own sister, somepony whom he had never fought with once. He had used her full name too, Twilight listened when somepony called her Twilight SPARKLE. She almost tiptoed into the room and took a seat on the edge of the bed. She stayed quiet, not wanting to cause a fight with her brother.

After a few tense moments of Shining struggling to get his back leg through his guard uniform, Twilight bounded off the bed with an almost embarrassed merriment. She thought she could help him and maybe he wouldn't be so much of a grump. But before she could help him, a violent cough wracked his body, making his legs go out from underneath him, and he crashed to the floor in exhaustion as his mind regained control.

"Shining, are you okay?" Twilight cried and finished her rush to the unicorn as he continued to cough. The controlled posture and ideal looks of a soldier and a captain vanished, replaced with only a weak, sick looking shell of a young stallion. Once his coughing attack had finally stopped, Shining struggled to get up. Twilight got underneath him and pressed up under his stomach to give him some support.

"I don't need any help, Twilight." He rebelled like a small foal, but Twilight refused to let him go.

"Yes you do Shining, and I can prove it to you using at least twelve different formulas on stallion personality and health." With some intense shoving from Twilight, Shining got onto his bed where he hung his head down to get the nauseating swirl of room to slow down to a speed that allowed him to walk correctly. "You said that this was just a simple cold that will simply blow over. That was two weeks ago, and you are still having trouble. I think it's starting to get worse, tell you the truth, and I'm starting to worry about you."

Her brother waved his hoof at her and raised his head up to meet her gaze with his. She could see the strength that made so many ponies respect him and had helped him in becoming the youngest Captain of the Guard in Equestrian history, it was pushing through the weakness until Shining stood up on all fours. He towered over his sister by a neck and a head, and Twilight had to look up at him to continue their gaze. "Twilight, what does three up and three down mean?" He asked as he pointed to the rank path on his shoulder.

Twilight turned her gaze to the patch remembering how hard her brother worked to get to where he was now. She saw where this was going and felt a bit unease come over her. "Well, Spike would just say 'the end of an inning...' hehe, such a child."

Shining had the same unamused expression on his face that told Twilight that her attempt to defuse the situation had failed. "I'm asking you what you think it means, not what Spike says as a joke." He continued to point at the patch.

Twilight, humiliated with herself, a small sigh for her actions pressed. "Captain." She simply answered. This was like being treated like a foal, and she didn't like that feeling.

"Captain, yes. Did I get this far by being weak?"

"But being sick doesn't mean your..." Twilight tried to get Shining down from the pedestal of light that he was placed upon.

Shining raised his hoof and she was silent. "Answer the question."

"No." Twilight ultimately said, her cheeks red from embarrassment.

"Right. I have a job to do as Captain of the Guard, the leader of the protectors that protect the citizens. I can't do that if I'm in bed with a simple cold. Many of the colts out there look up to me, I can't turn them down. I know you love me and want the best for me, but I have to do what is best for the ponies of Canterlot." With that end note, Shining Armor, youngest Captain of the Royal Guards, leader, marched out the door in all of his gilded glory.

Twilight stood back in the room for a little bit longer. The image of her brother acting like that was fresh in her mind and she wanted it out now. She used happier memories of when they were little and played together like there was no tomorrow, not the life that they both had now. Twilight felt so much nostalgia, she smiled widely.

But then she remembered the situation that the castle's inhabitants faced and this popped the bubble to get her back to the present day. Biting her lip, the unicorn uncoordinatedly rushed up to her mentor's room, where she knew Celestia would be looking out from the balcony at the front gates. Twilight had to give herself a pat on the back for being right once again. But her mind conflicted with the happy mental gesture when she saw the princess' emotionless face, the muscles in her cheeks not up or down, her brow unfurrowed, the eyes that were empty as theater with no movie to play.

Walking out onto the balcony alongside her mentor, Twilight saw that the rioters were slowly growing in size from the first time she had seen them through her window of her room on the top floor of the left tower of the castle. She felt in her gut that something was coming, and she turned to find a rock sailing through the air straight at her, which she barely had time to duck under. She found that the mob was throwing other rocks and other projectiles that would definitely do some damage should they hit. Looking to the princess with worried eyes, Twilight wondered why the princess would stand where she could get hit, unmoving from the possible pain, when she noticed a shimmer in the light surrounding the princess and Twilight knew that she had a shield surrounding her.

"If you want to be out here with me Twilight Sparkle, you best stand next to me back here so you don't get hit, I have a shield spell protecting me." Celestia spoke to Twilight while her unemotional stare continued. The tone that she spoke her words with made Twilight shake, as if a cold draft crawled down her back. It was just so unlike the princess to speak as if she didn't care.

Twilight's pride when it came to anything magic made her one to not rely on others in that department, especially for a simple shield spell, so she created her own. Letting the princess know that she didn't need the help, Twilight was surprised to not hear even a sigh.

This made Twilight press her mental issue that she had with the princess at this time. "Princess, how come you tell me 'revenge is never the answer to the problems we face', but here you are taking revenge out on them for hurting Emil? I know it was a stab wound, but it wasn't that bad."

Once again, the princess never looked away nor lost the confidence in her speech as she replied: "This isn't revenge, this is prosecution. They stabbed Emil and there are some things that ponies do that cross the line: this is one of them. If they are not punished for what they did, what message does that send others?"

"That makes sense, but wouldn't this be somewhat of an act of war on your own ponies?"

"Not if they know why they are being arrested."

"Princess, we both know that ponies don't work that way. This would be the first time in how long that you have had to use your forces on your own ponies? They may ignore the incident and only focus on the arrest. This could cause a civil war."

For the first time, Celestia turned to look at the purple unicorn, who saw the look of fear in her eyes. "Do you doubt my rule?"

The sound of that question shook Twilight to the core. It was like the princess was threatening her. She answered slowly and picked her words carefully to still try and get her own point across to the leader. "No, Princess Celestia, I wouldn't do that. But the thought still bugs and even worries me."

"Twilight, it's better that you keep to your magic studies. I'll worry about politics." These words weren't comforting. Twilight was unsure if the princess meant them to be or not, but she knew she had spoken when she wasn't supposed to.

"I'm sorry for stepping out of line Princess, I'm just worried about what they would do." She couldn't help that feeling. If they were willing to hurt somepony and still make the demands they did, then who knows how far they would go, and most likely these ponies were only the tip of the iceberg with many more from around Equestria who would share their point of view. What would they do when they learned that THE Princess Celestia used force on her own ponies? Twilight believed that this was only the beginning.

Also, Twilight couldn't help if there was some ulterior motive to all of this: Celestia had never been this violent before, but the unicorn protege kept her mouth shut.


	4. Tarnished Silver Knight

** Chapter 4: Tarnished Silver Knight**

_Edited by BlackRoseRaven_

With the lesson of the day over, and the last bell about to ring to let the students go for the day, Crystal sat at her desk in the middle of the loud and obnoxious chatting fillies and colts who had little else to do but talk about nonsense to pass the time. The noise was so deafening to the blind filly's sensitive ears, she had to attempt to block most of the echoing sound with her hooves as to not be struck by a massive, throbbing headache. She really, really hated this time of the school day, and "really, really" hatred was hate doubled, so it was quite a powerful phrase to be used by such a youngster. Crystal felt such a feeling boil in her insides like a wienie roast when her classmates started to sound like the noises she had heard at the zoo when they had gone on a school field trip there once before. She could just imagine that the other students were doing exactly what had been explained to her by the tour guide that day.

In her mind, the current world around her was just a bunch of colorless shapes that looked like ponies... or rather, what she interpreted the descriptions given to her to be like ponies. It had no background, and these ponies were running around on unhealthy looking, skinny, long legs, jumping from square to square, and making a mess out of everything. Chaos ruled everything and nowhere was safe. But in real life, everypony was just sitting at a desk across from their friends and were talking as if they were outside.

The piercing ring of the telephone surprisingly brought everypony to a polite whisper with impressive speed. Noticing the change, Crystal removed her hooves to uncover her ears before her attention too was caught by another ring of the device. Wheatmire picked the telephone up after its third annoying ring, and the attention for the teacher's conversation dropped completely, and Crystal didn't even listen either. She wasn't in the best of moods anymore from the beginnings of that headache that she had been trying to avoid before.

"Crystal." Wheatmire barked out to the little filly who flinched from both the unexpected call and a bit of pain that flared up in her brain. Crystal managed to avoid giving herself whiplash from how fast she turned her head in the direction she had heard the voice come from as Wheatmire continued with her attention. "It's your mother, she wants to talk to you about something important."

Crystal could feel her cheeks heat red from embarrassment, and the childish "oo's" coming from some of her classmates didn't help with the matter. Unfortunately for Crystal, it was no secret from the entire school that she was babied by her Mom so much, and when the subject arose, she always became the brunt of their jokes.

The joking suddenly ceased before it could really get going when a soprano male voice shouted: "Hey, knock it off!" Crystal recognized the voice instantly as Pitchpatch, probably...no, undeniably one of the most popular colts in the school because he had been the first in the class to get his cutie mark, which according to him was singing. "It's not her fault that her mom loves her!"

Once again, Crystal felt another kind hoof on her back leading her somewhere. She knew it had to be Pitch because he was the only pony in the school who would help her like this. This time however, she didn't feel the humiliation or anger that she usually felt when somepony else would do this. She instantly knew and felt that Pitch wasn't doing this out of pity, but was trying to be helpful. His clear voice, perfect for singing, spoke to her with happiness and eagerness: "Here, let me help you get there."

She was about to throw out what she really wanted for Pitch to do when she snapped out of the goo-goo state her mind had fallen into and pulled herself away from the colt who she wanted as a "friend". Self sacrifice for self gain was needed to accomplish what she wanted, she had to show that she could do things on her own. "No Pitch, I don't need any help." Oh Celestia, she couldn't even convince herself with how she said that. She spoke with a lack of confidence and sadness that made what she said obvious that it wasn't true.

Pitch was silent before giving his answer to Crystal's statement. "Okay, you can do it Crystal!" He agreed, even after her lame performance and him actually helping her before. He did that for her...oh sweet Celestia, he was such a caring colt. But she, once again, pulled herself out of those thoughts: she still had a phone to answer.

"Yes Martha, she's coming right now...Yes, she's refusing any..." Crystal tuned out that conversation and kept her focus on feeling where the desks were. No pony was shouting out directions to her, and she hoped they wouldn't, either: it would give her all the more freedom to get there on her own.

An atmosphere of apprehension created an uneasy feeling throughout the classroom, and everypony there could feel it. They all stood as they watched Crystal begin to move towards where Wheatmire's voice had given her the general direction of the phone, and they all backed her up with silent encouragement that the filly didn't feel.

Crystal kept her concentration on the goal. She took her time moving step-by-step forward, feeling along with her front hoof to make sure that nothing was in her way that she could bump into, and she changed her direction when she did feel something. She could feel the stares were from ponies, and she imagined they were just waiting for her to fail, and the thought of proving herself to everypony goaded her on.

After a few these moments, Crystal felt a hoof press into her shoulder that told her to stop walking. She did when the classroom of foals suddenly erupted up in a spectator-like cheering that told her that she had made it and that her mind was wrong and that her classmates had been behind her the entire time. She had done it. She had walked to Wheatmire's desk by herself without any help from anypony. The teacher had to silence all of her students with threats of more homework as she floated the telephone down to Crystal, who took it with her own magic when she felt it touch her ear.

Crystal wondered what her mother wanted this time, since this wasn't the first time that her mother had called her at school, as she began to speak to her through the phone. "Hi Mom." She called into the voice part of the device with such a soft voice lacking in any confidence that she could've melted any mean pony's stone heart right on the spot, but the magisterial Martha was used to such a voice.

"Come on Crystal dear, speak up. I can barely hear you, much less understand you." Crystal could hear Martha begin to reprimand her and she knew that she should never interrupt her when she began doing that..which she did all the time anyway. "You know? I need to get you to a speech class. Yes! I'll do that. I could see it now, you talking to famous ponies whose names escape me for some reason. Anyway I digress, I called you to tell you that I will be about half-an-hour late picking you up from school, so just hang out there until I get there."

"Okay Mom." Crystal couldn't really say anything else.

"Okay darling, hugs and kisses, I'll see you later." The sound cut off quickly on the other end of the line with a low humming sound, telling her that her mother had hung up.

As if it was planned the moment that Wheatmire placed the phone back onto the holder where it was supposed to go, the final release bell finally wailed out its call of sweet, sweet freedom. The ponies that had been watching the scene all rushed to get to their stuff before stampeding out the door into the cool afternoon.

In the scrambling, one pony knocked Crystal to the floor. She felt more surprise than pain when she collided with the floor. When the explosive sound of ponies running to the door thinned to the outer hallway, Crystal could make out the sounds of a scuffle before Wheatmire's shrill voice put an end to it before Crystal could get up and investigate.

"Pitch! Riot! What in Celestia's name are you two doing!?" Wheatmire's hoofsteps rushed over to where the sounds of violence were located. "Pitch, get off him!" The sounds of struggle stopped completely after this when Crystal stood up from the floor. "What was going on? Explain yourselves." A small pause ensued before. "Yes Pitch?" Pitch must've raised his hoof to answer.

"We were fighting, Miss Wheatmire. You must've known that since you are older than we are." Crystal had to sigh at the same time as she heard Wheatmire do the same because she knew that Pitch would say some smart remark. He was such a clever colt.

Wheatmire's voice was raw with controlled irritation as she spoke back to the most likely proud Pitch. "You know what I meant you little bug, and I won't ask again."

"If I'm a bug, than I must be a big stink bug, huh Miss Wheatmire?"

Before the teacher could retaliate with words to that, Riot spoke up but Crystal could hear his stuttering coming out even worse than usual and couldn't help but feel sorry for the little guy. "I-I-I ac-ac-cid-dently p-p-push-sh-shed C-C-Crystal o-o-over." He didn't like to speak unless it was absolutely necessary so he could avoid the embarrassment of his stuttering, and when he did, it was only but a few words to get his point across.

"And your brother just decided to beat you up because of this?" Wheatmire's voice was filled with uncertainty and incredulity at the brothers.

Crystal decided to move over to where the voices were. Right close by, if not almost half way across the classroom. She lowered her ears at the argument and she just had to intervene. "It's okay, I wasn't hurt." She didn't know how saying this would help anything after she heard it come out of her her mouth, but she had to say something...anything to get her point across to get them to stop without actually telling them to stop.

"Crystal, not now." Pitch shot back to the blind filly, which surprised her quite a bit. Her image of him in her mind dropped a bit from the glowing knight in shining armor (whatever that looked like, but it sounded romantic to her from how it had been explained to her) to one with dull armor that shone like the waters of a murky swamp. But he was still a knight...right?

"Pitch, that is enough. You don't need to yell at young Crystal here." Crystal's thoughts were broken by Wheatmire. "She's tired of this argument and so am I. I'm going lightly on you because you are both brothers and I obviously can't tell you enough times Pitch to not be so rough, so just go."

"Fine by me." Pitch spoke through clutched teeth before he suddenly grabbed a hold of Crystal by wrapping his hoof around her back and directing her to where their bags were. Crystal's bag was there first, Crystal knew this for sure, but Pitch placed his right next to hers. "Come on Crystal, I wanna see the new candy shop that had just opened yesterday downtown. My mom gave me three whole bits to spend there. You can come with me. Here, I'll get your bag for you."

Feeling the sudden shock and surprise from the grab, Crystal jerked and weaved herself out of his hold. It had no tenderness like she felt before from his voice, only a feeling of greed. Telling him the truth, Crystal figured, was the best thing for her to say. "I'm sorry Pitch, but 'Mamma Mia' wants to pick me up late and I don't want her to get mad at me because I was gone. You have no idea how bad..."

Pitch suddenly and rudely interrupted her with his own plea for her company. "Come on, this'll be fun. It's just down the street and around the corner, we could be back before she gets here."

"Pitch, no!" Crystal really, really, really hated shouting. "I can't get 'Mamma Mia' mad at me now. Not when the fall equa-thingy feast is only in two weeks, she'd ground me for sure and I wouldn't be able to go."

Pitch's next question came out of the blue for Crystal, and really confused her. "Do you have a date yet?"

"What? Um...no...I don't."

Okay...I guess I'll go alone...see ya later."

Crystal could hear the slow clopping noise of Pitch's hooves on the wooden floorboards move away to their bags. She could hear Pitch whisper something to his brother, Riot, before she heard the two leave out the door of the schoolhouse. Her head fell as a somber feeling overwhelmed her, twisting her insides into a knot of complete self-regret.


	5. Courage On An Unknown Side

** Chapter 5: Courage On An Unknown Side**

_Edited by: BlackRoseRaven_

Pitchpatch didn't immediately go down to the candy store like he had said he was going to. While grabbing his bag that he had set right next to Crystal's sky blue bag, he suddenly had an idea that would get Crystal out of the classroom and give him and chance to talk to her without the adults that were always around her. Oh, how Pitch loved that filly: her emerald green coat shined so brightly in any type of light, and her skills in magic were undeniably the best. But the best part was that no pony had taken her as a marefriend, and he planned to be her first.

He looked back over at Wheatmire: she was busy looking at the tests of the day and grading them at her desk, so she wouldn't notice. He took up Crystal's bag before he turned and whispered into Riot's ear in a threatening voice that shouldn't have come from a colt of his age yet, yet it did: "Don't you dare even think about telling on me or else you will really find out what that spider you crushed last night felt...understand?"

Terrified, having learned to never doubt his brother's threats or their severity, Riot frantically nodded his head before he followed his brother out of the doorway and into the hall. Maybe he could help stop Pitch from doing whatever his brother was planning. Maybe by going back, saying he needed to get something, and then telling Crystal or Wheatmire. But the nerve was never there to follow up on his thoughts, and all he could do was give one last glance back to the blind filly who never deserved such an admirer.

Not that Pitch was a bad colt: in fact, when Pitch was in a great mood, he was the greatest colt to be around, but when that temper hit...watch out.

The brothers walked outside, where the rocky outline of the mountain city of Canterlot met them in all of its stony glory. While not situated all the way at the peak of the mountain, it was built into many, many years ago, it was quite high up above the valley of green, grassy rolling hills that humped like a serpent swirling and meandering across the ground and the golden farmlands that were rich in produce such as apples, carrots, potatoes, celery stalks, and many other edible goods. Being this high up above Equestria, and more so of the fact that this was the home of Princess Celestia, this caused the city's inhabitants to have a higher value of their home and of themselves than they did for others.

But Pitch was different, as he never thought of himself any better than other ponies. It had helped that he hadn't been born in Canterlot, but from somewhere he didn't remember, that gave him such a positive view of other ponies. It was just that he had been provided with a brain and was glad to use it, while he had the impression that others didn't or didn't care, so it was up to him to do the thinking.

"Come on, let's try out that candy store anyway as we wait." Pitch spoke to his younger 'brother' with little to no emotion.

"Wh-Wh-Wait f-for wh-what?" Riot's stuttering voice questioned his 'brother' like a foal asking his mother for ice cream. It was so full of youthfulness and curiosity, an innocence that Pitch's mind wouldn't allow for him, and in a way, Pitch was a bit jealous of Riot for that.

But Pitch had to stay Pitch and not allow such feeling to cloud him of his goal any longer as he answered his brother: "Wait for things to settle down back at school before we return to get Crystal. I'll use her bag to get her to follow me somewhere and I can talk. Hopefully this way, she'll notice my love for her." The end of the statement was coated in a sadness that wasn't very well to be coming from and Riot noticed this.

"D-Does-s-n't really s-s-sound like-ke y-you r-real-ly have a-a p-p-plan." Riot pointed out as they entered the candy store that had a hoof-carved and brilliantly painted sign above the door that read 'SwEeT's CaNdY sYmPhOnY', and underneath it was a banner in bright spectral colors that read 'GRAND OPENING' in big bold letters.

The inside of the shop was packed full of ponies who wanted to see what the new shop had to offer. A line of them were up along the case, moving along to where they could pay for their treats. Inside the display case, rows and rows of different types of candies were met with stares of longing from ponies looking to buy them.

Their mouths would water at the sight of candy canes in different and unique flavors such as fresh peppermint, juicy apple pie, rich and soft chocolate-filled cherry, sugary cotton candy, and sticky butterscotch. But this was before ponies would see the light and fluffy marshmallows of many sizes and textures, some covered in a layer chocolate fudge, others with mint sprinkled along the shells. These had many foals' gazes filled with a wanting for two of the favorite things to be found in candy. The fruit candy had many inherently sweet and natural flavors that ranged from lollipops of many sizes to jellies. Rich and buttery toffee lay at the end with many other types: nuts, slathered with chocolate, and hazelnut. All these treats could be washed down with a refreshing soda and many more candies were around the shop and couldn't all be described.

Looking at all of this, Pitch concluded that the owner of the store really loved chocolate.

The pair got in line to wait for their turn as they looked at their choices, and Pitch answered his brother with a voice of pure sadness that once again didn't sound like him. "I...I don't know what's wrong with me." He sighed, and quickly smacked himself hard across the face with a hoof, making a few bystanders cringe at the sound. Riot was just as surprised as they were.

The sting he inflicted on himself did nothing to quell the chaotic emotions that rumbled through him like a violent quake. The sadness of not being noticed by the beautiful filly...no...the beautiful, stunning mare, the willingness to protect her, and the anger he felt. From where, he didn't know, but they were slowly taking their toll of him.

"I can't control my emotions." Pitch continued as the line moved forward and they got closer to the register. "Your dad said that I should be older before I feel or think such things, but they go through my head anyway... it's not like somepony is telling me this stuff." He sighed once more. "I don't know, maybe Crystal would never like a pony like me." After such a pitiful statement, Pitch leaned up against the glass of the display case and sighed for the third time, which caused the glass near his mouth to fog up when his hot breath touched the cold glass.

Riot didn't like seeing anypony upset, especially his almost bipolar 'brother', who could go from loving and supportive to outright angry and violent. Seeing Pitch like this hurt him inside and he wanted to do something to cheer him up. Unfortunately, Riot wasn't very good at reading people's emotions, which got him in trouble a lot when he said something wrong.

"M-M-M-Mom alw-ways-s said y-you were an-n...ear-rly bloo-oomer." Riot was really trying to make his 'brother' feel better. His Mom always said that it was a really good thing, that he was getting older faster.

Very, very quickly, that anger that Pitch was known to have suddenly flared through the icy sadness, melting away the layer that kept the demon from coming up. Before Riot could react or say anything else in his defense when he saw that look in Pitch's eye that told him that he had said something wrong, Pitch forcefully grabbed a hold of him by the shoulders and proceeded to viciously shake the sense from him. Pitch was shouting at him with a volume not fit for indoors, "SHE'S NOT MY MOTHER!" This was followed by Pitch slamming Riot's body, headfirst, into the display case without shattering the glass, before giving him a full-on punch across Riot's snout.

Riot tried to cover his face to protect himself from any blows, but he was disoriented and only managed to fall to the floor, semi-conscious.

At this point, Pitch couldn't have cared less about his 'brother's' feelings right now in his completely emotional state of mind at the moment. The same sentence played out in his mind over and over again as if it echoed through a monstrous cavern from a great number of ponies shouting it: NOT YOUR MOTHER...NOT YOUR MOTHER...NOT YOUR MOTHER!

Before the tormentor could beat up his victim any further, a stallion wrestled him off with a pair of strong forelimbs, keeping the two apart. Even through the pure rage Pitch was feeling, he could still hear the firm and authoritative call from the blue unicorn shopkeeper who went by the name of Sweets. "Hey you, punk, if you wanna do that, do it outside! Not in my parlor!"

So, even through Riot had gone too far with what he had said, because Pitch had thrown the first physical punch, he got off clean. Who did this pony think he was to step into somepony else's business like that?

Pitch turned towards Sweets as the stallion kept him from doing anything nasty physically this time, but Pitch was a well rounded colt with a silver tongue. "You should get to know who was wrong in the struggle before you point your high and mighty hoof at me, the one you think was wrong. Did it ever occur to you that maybe I was doing something right?"

"Just get him out of here." Sweets told the stallion, who Pitch felt nod.

"And now you're going to censor the outcry because you don't like it!" Pitch struggled against the jerking hoofs around him, if only to give him some extra time to get his point across. "Yes, I know the word, and I will use it whenever and wherever it is needed!"

Pitch was tossed out of the door and into the ancient brick and stone streets of Canterlot. Landing right beside him was Crystal's bag. He realized he dropped it when he had struck Riot. Looking back through the window of the shop, he could see that little foal being swarmed by ponies. Inconsiderate pricks! Even his own step-brother. Pitch only called Riot 'step-brother' when the moronic backstabber was acting the part of one.

Pitch pushed himself up onto his hooves and placed Crystal's saddlebags onto his back behind his own...how did they manage to stay on? Enough time must've passed for him to return to school. Nothing could turn his mind away from his goal: he had to get Crystal to like him with this very last chance.

He knew that his plan was flawed from the start: how could he know she would chase him, and judging by what he saw back in the classroom, she had trouble walking without help, probably because so many ponies had helped her walk, she has never really learned to keep her balance very well...how would she run? But he felt that he was running out of time and he was desperate for her to at least consider him a coltfriend. Every nice thing that he had done for her had only earned him hugs, and once...a peck on the cheek. Oh, how he had blushed rosy red when she did that!

Of course, Pitch wasn't only in love with Crystal because she was beautiful, he had convinced himself of this long ago when these feelings were being tested to see if they were true. He was truly smitten with her because she never treated him like he was above or below her like the students or the teacher. No, she only treated him like she would any pony. She was so smart, so caring, so kind, and the beauty that he saw in her shining coat and milky white eyes was only the icing on the cake.

When he reached the school once again, he felt strange butterflies tickle in his stomach. He was very dreadfully nervous. But why? Why in all of Celestia's Equestria would he be nervous?

His brain's answer to this question stopped Pitch from going any further in his quest. He was nervous because he was afraid that Crystal wouldn't like him. This was his one chance, but he had to take it. He had to at least try, and with what little courage the young colt could muster within himself, he began to move in.


	6. Product of Emotions

Shining would never say this out loud for Twilight or anypony else to hear, but that his sister was right. His sickness was really beginning to take its toll on him as he explained his plan to arrest the mob with little to no incidents to the commanders surrounding the planning table.

His head throbbed with an ache that made it hard to concentrate on anything that even his own mouth said, as it was still understandable but a little hazy, as if he was speaking through cotton. His vision was like looking through smoked glass and it was beginning to be difficult to distinguish things sometimes, but it was coming and going. His throat was a bit scratchy and raw: even the least bit of talking was like sandpaper to wood, and anything more than a whisper and could cause an uncontrollable coughing fit. His limbs felt like rubber bands: they had almost no support of his body.

With all of these symptoms plaguing him, the stubborn stallion still believed that he had to keep the image of leadership, so he kept it quiet. Though, just by looking at him was proof enough that something was wrong, but he himself didn't see it.

"Now, here is what I want everypony to do." Shining tried to speak with as much confidence as he could muster, but the coughing and him weakly resting his head upon his forelimb as he laid on the pillow overlooking a map of the city streets was taking its toll. In front of the castle gate was a crossroad on three different sides that had a unicorn's magic project a red zone where the three roads met to show where the rioters were.

Shining pointed at a group of alleyways nearby, roughly a city block away, and continued. "The earth ponies, under me, would use these alleyways to get as close as we could get to the mob without being seen. The unicorns under Soul Flasher's command would erect barriers here and here." He pointed his hoof at the street opposite of the main castle gate and the road adjacent to it away from the alleyways. He coughed once to get the frog out of his throat but only succeed in hurting himself, so he just had to deal with it.

"We are going to close them off so they won't have anywhere else to run to but straight into the advancing earth pony guard. Observations have shown that there are pegasi there so I want Bright Wing to take care of them if they decide to take flight."

After finishing speaking, the last bit of effort to keep his head up was lost as his head plopped down between his forelimbs, and the pressure he felt from his neck and shoulders to keep his head up subsided.

There was a pregnant pause as the semi-leadership of the guard looked upon the plan in their minds before the silence was broken by the pegasus Bright Wing. His blue feathers were ruffled from irritation as he asked a question: "Sir," this word was full of sarcasm and the twitch in his eye showed how much he really did NOT like saying that work to Shining. "If I may be so bold, which you know I am and will be bold, I have to say that this plan is much more complicated than it should be. It..."

"Bright Wing," Shining Armor, whether from his sickened mind or not, rudely interrupted the pegasus. " Are you still refusing to lead the pegasi? Bright Wing, you know it would be good for you public image if..."

Bright Wing cringed and his feathers ruffled even more at the idea of leading the pegasi. Following Shining's grand example of leadership, he interrupted his leader. "I don't think that really matters at this point, sir, but to answer your question...No, I don't wanna lead them."

"Oh well, that's your loss. "The way that Shining had said that sentence was with a careless, happy child-like glee that made it seem like he had a little too much alcohol in his system. But Shining would never drink that stuff...it would ruin his image.

Bright Wing continued with his original thought, not really holding his tongue. "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, I don't think..."

"You know what, Bright Wing?" Shining interrupted once again. "That seems a little bit selfish to keep your...leadership skills away from your...own kind." Shining knew that was where it hurt and he was right.

In a flash, one that many ponies in the room had no time to react in, Bright Wing jumped from his position around that planning table with the fury of a caged beast as he tried to smash his hoof into Shining's face. He was only held back by the few ponies who had seen the reaction coming from Shining's brutal comment, and were now shouting at him above his own to calm down. His eyes were cold green steel as they drilled into Shining's own pair, which stared at him with no retaliation, only calmness and grogginess.

Shining's second-in-command, a unicorn by the name of Soul Flasher, took Shining by the hoof like a parent to a child, and then led him out of the room and away from the struggle that echoed through the walls. "I'LL GET HIM! I'LL GET THAT...!"

They ended up in another room of the guard's barracks. Soul Flasher sat down, almost just dropping Shining, on a sitting pillow laying on the floor as he continued to pace back and forth irritably. Moving in quick movements and making quick turns.

Finally after a long, uneventful silence, Soul Flasher berated Shining Armor. "What was all that back there?" He didn't bother with using the word 'sir' at this time. To him, it was just a formality and a title for the kitten to become a manticore with no tail. "You aren't a racist, Shining, I know this for sure unless you've been hiding it well from your trips to the bar with Bright Wing and his gang. So what were you trying to prove in there? Is this the sickness starting to finally get to you, or are you just drunk by any chance?"

"No! I don't touch that stuff, remember?"

"Then what was your problem back there with Bright?"

"Just putting him where he belongs. He shouldn't be trying to step over me like that."

"He wasn't, Shining! He was trying to explain why he disagrees with your plan, and for the record, I have some problems with it as well." Soul tried to reason with his Captain.

At this point, another violent coughing fit racked Shining's body as he turned his head as to not spread the germs that he had. During this episode, Soul ran out of the room, speaking calmly to whoever was on the other side. "Get some water."

Before he closed the door a still angry Bright Wing shouted out, "I hope you choke in there, Shining!"

Shining could barely keep his head up as he coughed and coughed with what seemed like no end. When it finally did end, to the relief of Shining and his irritated throat, Soul returned with a cup of water suspended in the midst of his golden magic, proceeding to offer it to Shining.

Shining gladly and eagerly took the cup of sweet nourishment and proceeded to empty it past his gums with greed to stop the scratchy feeling in his throat; it helped a little.

"Are you alright now, Shining?" Soul Flasher asked his commander with complete sincerity in his voice and golden eyes as he laid on a pillow that he had moved with his magic over next to him.

"Sure, I'm okay. Completely fine." Shining lied. His public image on his mind.

"Okay, if you're so sure, I'll let it be." Obviously, Soul was unconvinced by Shining's childish attempts, but he could worry about that later, as he had a job to do to protect the castle and the citizens of Canterlot from trouble...when the citizens were the problem themselves. And if it needed to be, from Shining as well. "But should you lead this defense at the moment? With your sickness, I just don't want anypony getting hurt because of a mistake."

Shining only shook his head stubbornly. "We need as much morale as we could get for this. Do you know how long it's been since the Princess has had to use force against her own people? The ponies need to relearn her might." It was an excuse, Shining knew it was. He also knew that Soul Flasher couldn't do anything with the guard behind his back without Celestia's approval, and she trusted Shining with his judgment.

"But I don't think this plan is a very good one. It doesn't need to be like this." Soul pushed the matter on because he believed Shining had to get his public image out of his mind and get the job done.

Shining held up his hoof, which silenced Soul's mouth but not the gaze. "The plan will suffice. If you're so sure that I'm wrong, tell me your opinion and ideas, and then I'll give mine." Another smaller coughing fit followed that forced him to not move a muscle for a few seconds afterwords.

Soul waited politely for his superior to be ready so he would not have to repeat himself again. "Why don't we just have the entire crossroads blocked off so no pony would have to physically go in and get themselves hurt? It's much closer and easier to just finish them off right there, these ponies are unarmed."

Shining, through his half propped up head, listened, then thought with silence, before he was ready to answer and raised his head once more. "There are flaws in your plan. These ponies are not unarmed: you haven't heard about Emil? He got stabbed with a knife by one of them, my money being on a unicorn. And because these ponies are rioting is because they have forgotten that the Princess can do more than raise and lower the sun and the moon. Plus, having everypony so close would be chaos. Do you want that happening? Ponies would get even more injured or worse."

"So, it isn't all about your public image." Soul raised an eyebrow. "But there are flaws in yours and..." There was a bit of snootiness in his sentence. The kind that could come from a confidence boost.

But before he could get any further, Shining cut him off. "But like I said...It seems that my plan is the one that counts, or do you wanna take that up with the Princess?"

The confidence that Soul had shown never let up with these words, but he didn't answer back so Shining finished the conversation with a nod, before weakly raising himself up to his hooves, slowly returning to the meeting room. Soul kept to himself for a while.

Could he have picked a better set of fools? That Shining was only trying to keep himself on a lit pedestal in the eyes of the youth that he so treasured. But the sickness that he was fighting was ruining the image. Maybe it was poison?

Maybe he should get his old friend Zecora to come down to the castle and see what she could do for the pitiful Shining Armor: she most likely wouldn't mind.

Soul didn't hate Shining: no matter how often he had to be irritated by that stallion for his youth and arrogance, he had to equally respect him for his tact and heart. But this plan...was only the product of the sickness.

The seconds that crawled by on the clock in its rhythmic ticking only served to remind Crystal that time didn't move as fast as she wanted it to. She couldn't really say that she didn't have anything to do: she had an audio-book in her bag, but would have to ask Ms. Wheatmire where her backpack was, since she was sitting in a different seat than usual, if she was to get it. She refused to ask for help for anything if she could help it, even if it meant suffering before enjoying freedom later on. So, with nothing to do but spend the time she had been forced to wait out for her increasingly late mother once again, a boredom had set in as usual, and the stubborn filly knew that it could easily be avoided or dealt with.

Sitting at a desk at the back of the room, so as to be as far away from the teacher's desk as possible, Crystal could feel the nice, cool wind panting through an open window behind her. It softly and silently weaved through her mane; it was a blessing, serving as a way to keep her mind occupied with the feeling of the flow of time, but also, she held a complete aversion to it taunting her from the outside world, and made her waiting inside the more colorless and extended.

Ms. Wheatmire was at her desk at the front of the room, next to the door as usual when they both had to stay longer than the school day. Crystal knew this from the sound of a quill scratching away quickly at what was most likely paper. Crystal prided herself with having exceptionally good hearing, which she used the most often out of her remaining senses to replace her sight. To the blind filly, all the listening skills she had acquired would never let her understand how scratching a quill onto paper would be a form of communication. Her mother had explained to her that the quill had a substance on it called ink that was used to write words on the paper for others to read. The idea enraptured and fascinated the filly who was always interested in learning something new. Ponies could see words instead of saying and hearing them? That would be amazing to see...unfortunately.

CLICK. PING-PING-PING-PING

The sudden sound of the classroom's clock chiming the hour startled Crystal out of her thinking spell. She thoughtfully raised her ears to listen to the time and how much of it had passed since school had ended. It was four now and school always got out when the clock chimed three times, so school had ended an hour ago. Where was her mother? This was getting to be the longest she has had to wait for her.

When her mother had first placed Crystal into a public school after the homeschooling she had received due to Crystal's excessive asking as well as the price of the tutor becoming a burden on the family budget, she had always waited at the front of the school for her daughter. Now after a year, sadly she rarely got here on time. Why? When her mother had first done this, it was only twenty minutes by her estimate, but Crystal was never told and she ended up sitting on a bench at the front of the building with the doors locked and Ms. Wheatmire's gone home. Crystal could vividly remember the resentment she felt back then as the same thing happened now, only she was more prepared this time.

Crystal's mind now replayed that moment, but thankfully this memory ended on a happy note, as this was the first time she had met Pitch and his brother Riot. She was sitting there sulking on the bench when a clear voice that sounded like an angel pony's brought her out of her stupor. She blushed at the thought of the feeling she got as they all talked and the warm fuzziness down in her stomach made listening harder, and she cracked a bit of a smile when she thanked her mom for being so irresponsible, which had prompted her mother to ground her for disrespect, but Crystal couldn't have cared less at the time: she had found her first crush.

"Pitch, what in Equestria are you doing back here? I told you to leave." Ms. Wheatmire's shrill voice called out and snapped Crystal back into reality. She hadn't even realized that Pitch had returned.


End file.
